WINNIPEG, MB – The University of Winnipeg’s Department of Theatre and Film concludes its 2007/08 theatre season with William Shakespeare’s The Adventures of Pericles, from Mar., 25-29, 2008 with nightly performances at 8:00 pm at the Gas Station Theatre, 445 River Ave. Admission is free but reservations are recommended. The Fourth-Year Honours Acting – Interpreting Shakespeare class perform with technical support from the Department’s production students.
“Our production, like the play itself, is a mash-up of styles and takes advantage of the wonderful, theatrical opportunities the play offers to create exciting, strange and exotic new worlds,” said Director Christopher Brauer. “We’re using very simple and transformable costumes and set pieces and the talents of this very strong cast make the magic. Everyone in this production is seasoned in the Winnipeg theatre scene – from Seun Olagunju, who brings his Stratford experience to the company, to Lisa Nelson, Katherine Supleve and other Winnipeg Fringe veterans.”
Co-written with George Wilkins around the same time as Shakespeare wrote King Lear, The Adventures of Pericles is one of Shakespeare’s most popular plays with audiences. This is a true adventure story in the style of Captain Johnny or The Prisoner of Zenda, but seldom performed because of a highly flawed original printing of the text.
The Adventures of Pericles follows the eponymous hero on a quest to find love and family and to “come home again.” Having offended a mighty king and fearing for his life and the safety of his own small nation, Pericles embarks on a tour of a mythical, semi-classical Mediterranean world in which Greek-like nations are juxtaposed with Turkish – and even feudal English – cultures. Shipwrecks, jousting, miraculous resurrections, pirates, brothels, divine intervention and recoveries of long-lost relatives – this story has it all. Central to the last half of the play – the part actually written by Shakespeare – is Pericles’ daughter Marina, one of his most appealing heroines.
Working from a reconstructed text, the University of Winnipeg’s production features 11 actors playing more than 70 characters in multiple locations. In this production the story is held together by the ghost of long-dead poet John Gower, a sort of poetic drag-queen who uses puppet shows, dumb shows and disco karaoke to keep the story moving. The production also features the music of EastMountainSouth and Winnipeg band The Duhks, performed by the company with the musical support of guitarist/actor Tom Keenan (Measure for Measure, Troilus and Cressida, The Skinny Lie) and violinist/actor Erin McGrath (The Real Thing, The Universal Wolf, Still Desire You).
Set and costumes designed by senior student Jamie Plummer and lighting design by Hugh Conacher.
For reservations please call the 24-hour Reservation and Information Line at 204.786.9152, or visit The University of Winnipeg’s Department of Theatre and Film website at: http://theatre.uwinnipeg.ca
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FOR MORE INFORMATION
Patty Hawkins, Department of Theatre and Film, University of Winnipeg
T: 204.786.9955, E: p.hawkins@uwinnipeg.ca
Christopher Brauer, Department of Theatre and Film, University of Winnipeg
T: 204.786.9006, E: c.brauer@uwinnipeg.ca
